Most of these (but not all) are free for personal use only. Please ensure you comply with their license terms.
Be CAREFUL to find and choose the free version as some links have
versions that you have to buy.
I prefer some (but by no means all) freeware products to the real paid
for stuff!
AVG
Free Antivirus and Avast
Free Home Antivirus these provide virus protection. Use one
or the other NOT both!
Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft Adaware Personal SE
remove privacy issues or other bad software that is not classified as a
virus. Preferably use both.
Zone
Alarm (make sure you select free version when you install)
and Comodo Firewall (much less
resource hungry but can be a little irritating) are personal firewalls
that prevent unauthorised
access to your computer - use only one NOT both!
K9 Web Protection is an internet
content filter to prevent undesirable web sites from loading.
Karen's Replicator and 2 Bright Sparks Syncback
are simple to use backup software with scheduling features.
Java
run-time library will be needed for some of the software
below and some web pages you may visit.
Open
Office is mostly Microsoft Office compatible and provides the
equivalent of Word, Excel and Porwerpoint.
7 zip
extracts from compressed archives such as ZIP and RAR (it builds
archives too).
Foxit Reader reads PDF files like
Adobe Reader but much quicker in exchange for a few features I doubt
you
will use.
Firefox and Opera
are both web browsers that I prefer to Internet Explorer.
Audacity
is a sound editor and recorder.
Mp3gain
normalises mp3 files so they sound to be roughly at the same overall
volume.
Deepburner is data (not DVD
videos) writing software for CDs and DVDs.
Irfanview
is a very but powerful image viewer, editor, slideshow and batch
converter.
Jalbum
builds web pages in a choice of styles from your photos.
Picasa
catalogues images with an easy to use interface that allows photo
editing and sharing.
Crossloop
is a simple but secure way for me to view and possibly solve your problems without ever
meeting you! I suggest you need to be on broadband to use this software.